A cocktail party. A terrorist cell. Ancient bacteria. Aninternational conglomerate. All are networks, and all are a part of a surprisingscientific revolution. Albert-László Barabási, the nation'sforemost expert in the new science of networks, takes us on anintellectual adventure to prove that social networks, corporations,and living organisms are more similar than previously thought.Grasping a full understanding of network science will someday allowus to design blue-chip businesses, stop the outbreak of deadlydiseases, and influence the exchange of ideas and information. Justas James Gleick brought the discovery of chaos theory to thegeneral public, Linked tells the story of the true science of thefuture.
In this instant New York Times Bestseller, Geoff Smart andRandy Street provide a simple, practical, and effective solution towhat The Economist calls “the single biggest problem in businesstoday”: unsuccessful hiring. The average hiring mistake costs acompany $1.5 million or more a year and countless wasted hours.This statistic becomes even more startling when you consider thatthe typical hiring success rate of managers is only 50percent. The silver lining is that “who” problems are easily preventable.Based on more than 1,300 hours of interviews with more than 20billionaires and 300 CEOs, Who presents Smart and Street’s A Methodfor Hiring. Refined through the largest research study of its kindever undertaken, the A Method stresses fundamental elements thatanyone can implement–and it has a 90 percent success rate. Whether you’re a member of a board of directors looking for a newCEO, the owner of a small business searching for the right peopleto make your company grow, or a pare
A brilliantly reported true-life thriller that goes behind thescenes of the financial crisis on Wall Street and inWashington. In one of the most gripping financial narratives in decades,Andrew Ross Sorkin-a New York Times columnist and one of thecountry's most respected financial reporters-delivers the firstdefinitive blow- by-blow account of the epochal economic crisisthat brought the world to the brink. Through unprecedented accessto the players involved, he re-creates all the drama and turmoil ofthese turbulent days, revealing never-before-disclosed details andrecounting how, motivated as often by ego and greed as by fear andself-preservation, the most powerful men and women in finance andpolitics decided the fate of the world's economy.
Since Peter Senge published his groundbreaking book The FifthDiscipline, he and his associates have frequently been asked by thebusiness community: "How do we go beyond the first steps ofcorporate change? How do we sustain momentum?" They know thatcompanies and organizations cannot thrive today without learning toadapt their attitudes and practices. But companies that establishchange initiatives discover, after initial success, that even themost promising efforts to transform or revitalizeorganizations--despite interest, resources, and compelling businessresults--can fail to sustain themselves over time. That's becauseorganizations have complex, well-developed immune systems, aimed atpreserving the status quo. Now, drawing upon new theories about leadership and the long-termsuccess of change initiatives, and based upon twenty-fiveyears of experience building learning organizations, the authors of TheFifth Discipline Fieldbook show how to accelerate success and avoidthe obstacles that can stall momentum. The
How anyone can be more effective with less effort by learninghow to identify and leverage the 80/20 principle--the well-known,unpublicized secret that 80 percent of all our results in businessand in life stem from a mere 20 percent of our efforts. The 80/20 principle is one of the great secrets of highlyeffective people and organizations. Did you know, for example, that 20 percent of customers accountfor 80 percent of revenues? That 20 percent of our time accountsfor 80 percent of the work we accomplish? The 80/20 Principle showshow we can achieve much more with much less effort, time, andresources, simply by identifying and focusing our efforts on the 20percent that really counts. Although the 80/20 principle has longinfluenced today's business world, author Richard Koch reveals howthe principle works and shows how we can use it in a systematic andpractical way to vastly increase our effectiveness, and improve ourcareers and our companies. The unspoken corollary to the 80/20 princip
"Oh, screw it, let's do it." That's the philosophy that has allowed Richard Branson, inslightly more than twenty-five years, to spawn so many successfulventures. From the airline business (Virgin Atlantic Airways), tomusic (Virgin Records and V2), to cola (Virgin Cola), to retail(Virgin Megastores), and nearly a hundred others, ranging fromfinancial services to bridal wear, Branson has a track recordsecond to none. Losing My Virginity is the unusual, frequently outrageousautobiography of one of the great business geniuses of our time.When Richard Branson started his first business, he and his friendsdecided that "since we're complete virgins at business, let's callit just that: Virgin." Since then, Branson has written his own"rules" for success, creating a group of companies with a globalpresence, but no central headquarters, no management hierarchy, andminimal bureaucracy. Many of Richard Branson's companies--airlines, retailing, andcola are good examples--were started in the face of
